How does your life taste to other people? Are you walking in step with the Holy Spirit, enough so that the “fruit of the Spirit” is evident in the ways you interact with others?[i] How about your “Emotional Intelligence,” which Daniel Goleman defines as “the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships”? [ii]

I’ll be teaching a 6-week-class in October and November, blending together the concepts of the Fruit of the Spirit from Galatians chapter five, along with the five categories of Emotional Intelligence based on the research and writings of Daniel Goleman. If you are in the Austin area and are a part of Hope in the City, I wanted to invite you to be a part of this journey, where we will try to grow together in godly character and wise, relational leadership.

The Fruit of the Spirit and Emotional Intelligence
A Character and Leadership Development Equipping Class
Dates: On Sundays between October 19th to November 23rd, 2014
Time: 9 to 10 AM
Place: Hope in the City
4407 Monterey Oaks Blvd.
Hope for the Nations Room
Austin TX 78749

The goal in this class is to plug into the power source of the Holy Spirit, so that we can put into practice the godly character and EQ “soft skills” that will help us grow as mature, effective and transformative leaders.

As a teaser, here are some conversations I had with Paul Richardson last year regarding the five categories of Emotional Intelligence, in a podcast series we did entitled “Emotional Intelligence for Spiritual Leaders”:

Is glory something that God has all there is of, and He doesn’t share it with anyone? By being recognized for our service are we in danger of stealing glory from God? Is it wrong to want to feel honored even as we serve Him?

In this audio podcast, Mike O’Quin interviews Steve Hawthorne over these core motivational questions. Steve argues that God is so rich in glory, He can bestow honor on us without taking anything away from His own glory. In last week’s podcast, we talked about the essential essence of glory, and in this week’s conversation we focus more on the essential essence of honor. “Make your life a party by honoring other people, and get good at honoring God and giving him thanks at every excuse you can find,” Steve says, “and you’re going to find a natural humility that forms in you.”

Steve is the director of WayMakers, a mobilization ministry focused on seeing Christ glorified by obedient, worshiping movements in every people group. He is also the co-founder of the popular Perspectives course, and the writer of an article in that reader, The Story of His Glory, soon to come out in book form.

Click below to listen to this conversation, or search for “Faith Activators” in the iTunes store to subscribe to this podcast.

“Glory” for most of us is a religious, stained-glass window word that has no real place in our daily lives. But understanding what it is, and what it means for us, can give us a higher purpose for living and a deeper well of joy as we center our lives on Christ.

In this audio podcast, Mike O’Quin interviews Steve Hawthorne into his decades of study into the themes of God’s glory. Steve is the director of WayMakers, a mobilization ministry focused on seeing Christ glorified by obedient, worshiping movements in every people group. He is also the co-founder of the popular Perspectives course, and the author of an article in that reader, The Story of His Glory, soon to come out in book form.

Click below to listen to this conversation, or search for “Faith Activators” in the iTunes store to subscribe to this podcast.

Shane Harris recently visited a country in Central Asia and met a man who was sticking his toe in the waters of spiritual belief, then suddenly took a plunge while Shane was there. It’s a powerful story of God in action, drawing people far from Christ to Himself. Mike O’Quin interviews Shane on this dramatic story, and shares one of his own from Southeast Asia.

Click Below to listen to this conversation, or search for “Faith Activators” in the iTunes store to subscribe to this podcast.

My five-year-daughter Naomi and I recently went swan hunting along the banks of the Colorado River which flows through our fair city of Austin.

Before you notify the Humane Fowl Society, I mean “hunt” in the sense of looking for them to admire their majestic beauty. We were strolling along this river during half time at my daughter Ana’s lacrosse game. Her high school is located right next to this body of water which we Austinites call “Town Lake.” The hike and bike trails that run along its banks are an ideal location for strollers, joggers, bikers and swan hunters.

There is one swan we know of who makes his home on Town Lake. Once during another game’s half-time, we saw him floating on the other side of the river from where we stood, and we desired to get a closer look. We called out to him and pretended to throw something in the water, hoping he would think it was bread crumbs. He quickly paddled over, figured out he had been deceived, and left in a hurry. Naomi profusely apologized, calling out loudly after him, but I did get some good pictures. I know what you’re thinking…it’s mean to deceive swans.

During the next game’s half time we tried again, this time bringing actual bread crumbs. From across the river I think Mr. Swan looked up at us (it’s hard to tell for sure because they kind of look at you sideways), and didn’t bother to paddle over. Naomi screamed out her heartfelt apologies, “We’re sorry Mr. Swan! We have bread this time!” But Mr. Swan wasn’t buying it.

Then this time, on Ana’s final home game, we brought with us more bread and even more determination. We went to our usual spot and didn’t see him. So we took a long trek to the foot bridge that overlooks Town Lake for a better vantage point and we saw him on the other side. We climbed through off-shoot trails to get to the bank on that side, and Naomi was very excited that swan feeding was imminent. But by the time we got there, he had decided to go back to the other side where we were previously. Nice play, Mr. Swan. You have taught us our lesson. The deceivers have now become the deceived.

It was nearing the end of half-time and we needed to be reunited with our family. Plus Naomi really had to go to the bathroom and she was refusing to use the nasty Porta-Potty’s that we had passed along the trails. It was now or never to get those bread crumbs to Mr. Swan.

We made our way back across the river, got as close as we could to Mr. Swan from an overlook point, and called out to him as usual. Mr. Swan looked up at us (again sideways, so hard to tell) and we started furiously throwing bread crumbs in his direction. He didn’t seem that impressed, even knowing that we had clearly changed our ways and were throwing authentic bread crumbs before his royal audience.

There were already other people at the overlook point, all of them enjoying Town Lake at sunset. We interrupted them all with our frantic swan calling and bread crumb throwing. There was s couple on a bench whom I could tell had been arguing. A hip Austin girl was sitting on the rocks at the water’s edge, strumming her guitar and jotting down lyrics to a song that she was writing in her notebook. There was also some tourists taking pictures.

But then something magical happened, something that made little Naomi start jumping up and down with glee. Mr. Swan gently glided over to where we were, ready to receive our offerings. The couple stopped arguing. The musician stopped strumming. The tourists gasped and started taking even more pictures. And Naomi and I couldn’t have been happier.

I heard an insightful friend once remark that he wasn’t surprised more and more people consider themselves atheists as we live in such a man-man world. We drive our smartly engineered cars to our steel offices, work in cubicles under florescent lighting, stare at computer screens all day, drive home through dense traffic, click open our automatic garage doors, then sit on our comfortable synthetic sofas and turn on a man-made box which delivers us entertainment. Barely one whisper of the glory of creation, day in and day out.

The ancients, by comparison, lived their entire lives surrounded by creation. Their days were framed by sunrises and sunsets. The seasons of sowing and harvest tied them to the rhythms of the earth. They felt the sun’s heat on their backs, splashed cool water in their faces from streams, and walked along mountain ridges under pastel skies. They tended their own animals, farmed their soil with their own hands and helped deliver their own babies. At night they would look up in wonder at the starry hosts and feel a tug of worship in their souls.

To them, Paul’s argument to the believers in Rome would make sense: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made…” (Romans 1:20, NASB).

There on the banks of Town Lake, a delicate creature which could only have been thought-up by a wondrously creative author, something straight out of a fairy tale, awestruck a group of strangers and made them all stop what they were doing. The beauty of creation points in one direction, toward a loving Creator. God didn’t have to create swans, but they brought delight to His heart and He wanted to share them with all His children.

I don’t know about the other people in that moment, but for me I couldn’t help but thank the Master Creator of this gentle creature which brought such delight to my daughter’s heart. And I said to myself, I need to go out of my way more often to sense these gentle, glorious whispers from His heart.

Small Texas town secret. A hasty wedding. A feeling of rejection that seeped into Shane’s little soul, leaving him to feel unaccepted at his deepest core. It was hard for him to shake or understand, even as he grew older.

Listen as Mike O’Quin interviews Shane Harris on his journey from shameful secrecy to celebrated acceptance. It’s a beautiful and vulnerable story of God reaching into his life and bringing healing, freedom and restoration. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” – Psalm 139:13.

Click below to listen to this conversation, or search for “Faith Activators” in the iTunes store to subscribe to this podcast.

Are there lies that you are believing about yourself this very minute?

You betcha there are.

All of us walk in a degree of deception, believing lies about ourselves, others and God. In this audio podcast, Mike O’Quin interviews Russell Grigsby on his study into how believers can be set free to believe the truth about themselves. It’s an honest and hopefully helpful conversation between two friends, seeking to adhere to Paul’s admonition to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 2:12).

Click below to listen, or search for “Faith Activators” in the iTunes store to subscribe to this podcast.

Is revival something God does sovereignly on His own to wake up the hearts of His people, or something that we have to cry out for in prayer before He will move? In this audio podcast, Mike O’Quin and Shane Harris dive into this question, based on Shane’s research into past spiritual awakenings. What are the internal roadblocks that hinder revival, and is there a way we can position our hearts to experience it? Lord knows we need it!

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV).

This is the final podcast of a three-part series on spiritual awakening. We hope you will be stirred by our conversation. You can click below to listen, or search for “Faith Activators” in the iTunes store to subscribe to this podcast.

The world had never seen anything like it. During 1904 in Wales, an unprecedented spiritual awakening swept over that country, bringing over 100,000 people to Christ, filling churches and prayer meetings to overflowing, and transforming society. People were so absorbed with the things of heaven that popular sporting events had to be cancelled. The cry of people in this movement was “Lord, bend me!” asking God to soften their hearts and bend their wills to His.

In this audio podcast, Mike O’Quin interviews Shane Harris who has been researching past revivals and shares his research into this phenomenal move of God. They discuss the flavor, biblical themes and mind-boggling testimonies of this movement, hopefully to stir a greater spiritual hunger for more of God’s manifest presence in our times. In next week’s podcast, the third and final of this series, they will pull principles from both the Fulton Street Revival (last week’s podcast) and the Welsh Revival to see how it might impact us today.

Click Below to listen, or search for “Faith Activators” in the iTunes store to subscribe to this podcast.

In September of 1857 in New York City, a 48-year-old businessman and lay minister named Jeremiah Lanphier was desperate for a move of God in his city. Frustrated at the lack of spiritual interest he encountered as he invited people to services at the North Dutch Reformed Church, he walked the streets and passed out flyers for a simple prayer meeting. On September 23 he opened the doors of his church on Fulton Street for the one hour prayer meeting at noontime. He was the only one who showed up.

Six months later, The New York Times reported on a great spiritual awakening that had swept the city. From an editorial on March 20th:

“The great wave of religious excitement which is now sweeping over this nation, is one of the most remarkable movements since the Reformation . . . Travelers relate that on cars and steamboats, in banks and markets, everywhere through the interior, this matter is an absorbing topic. Churches are crowded; bank-directors’ rooms become oratories; school-houses are turned into chapels; converts are numbered by the scores of thousands. In this City, we have beheld a sight which not the most enthusiastic fanatic for church-observances could ever have hoped to look upon;–we have seen in a business quarter of the City, in the busiest hours, assemblies of merchants, clerks and working-men, to the number of some 5,000, gathered day after day for a simple and solemn worship. Similar assemblies we find in other portions of the City; a theatre is turned into a chapel; churches of all sects are open and crowded by day and night.”

What happened in between?

In this audio podcast, Mike O’Quin interviews Shane Harris who has been researching the Fulton Street Revival, also known as the Layman’s Revival. The testimonies he shares are stunning. Next week we will dive into the Welsh Revival which took place in the early 1900’s in Wales, and then we’ll have one more conversation on insights gleaned and hoped-for impact for today.

Click below to listen, or search for “Faith Activators” in the iTunes store to subscribe to this podcast.